Microplastics may affect how Arctic sea ice forms and melts

Plastic pollution in the oceans has become an important societal problem, as plastics are the most common and persistent pollutants in oceans and beaches worldwide. In the common imagination, plastic waste is often associated ...

Microplastic drifting down with the snow

Over the past several years, microplastic particles have repeatedly been detected in seawater, drinking water, and even in animals. But these minute particles are also transported by the atmosphere and subsequently washed ...

New study finds microplastic throughout Monterey Bay

Many people have heard of the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," a vast area of ocean between California and Hawaii where ocean currents concentrate plastic pollution. However, it turns out there may also be a lot of plastic ...

Microorganisms on microplastics

Organisms can grow on microplastics in freshwater ecosystems. The findings of a recent study undertaken by researchers from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and the Leibniz Institute ...

Estimating microplastic consumption

Since the mass production of plastics began in the 1940s, the versatile polymers have spread rapidly across the globe. Although plastics have made life easier in many ways, disposing of the materials is a growing problem. ...

Determining the composition of microplastic in water

Physicists from Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University have developed and applied a method of identifying microplastic collected in sea waters. The spectroscopy method determines the chemical composition of contaminants ...

page 10 from 13